Chapter 174: Get rid of the bad government caused by collusion between government and businessmen
Turning around, just after the court meeting ended, Zhu Houzhao stopped Jiao Fang, the chief minister of the cabinet.
Jiao Fang also had to salute Zhu Houzhao:
"Reporting to your Majesty, I am thinking that if the Ming Dynasty wants to fight the Tatars, it will indeed cost a lot of money and food, and it will increase the expenditure on the treasury. What Wang Hua said does not make sense!
Therefore, I don’t know what the consequences will be if the Ministry of Accounts owes too much debt to the Royal Bank!
The revenue from the treasury is limited, and His Majesty and the dignitaries who hold shares in the Royal Bank are definitely not willing to suffer losses. Once the treasury cannot repay the money, these dignitaries who hold shares in the Royal Bank will definitely suffer losses, and it is not a small sum, hundreds of dollars. At least there is some money! ”
Zhu Houzhao smiled slightly. He did not expect that Jiao Fang saw the key here and said:
"What you said is right. Once the treasury borrows a large amount of money from the Royal Bank and cannot repay it, the dignitaries holding shares in the Royal Bank will definitely suffer huge losses, including me, the emperor. Therefore, I and you both have to find a way to make the treasury give up the money." I can still afford it!”
"I understand! Your Majesty's move will undoubtedly make me, the officials and gentry who hold shares in the Royal Bank, and future generations of monarchs, including your Majesty now, have to find a way to make the Ministry of Accounts afford to pay back the money;
And the largest shareholder is the emperor. In order to ensure the prosperity of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor will naturally not let the Royal Bank not lend money to the Ministry of Accounts! Unless the emperor wants to be the king of subjugation!
What's more, even other officials and gentry who hold shares do not want the Ming Dynasty to fall. After all, if the Ming Dynasty falls, the profits of the world's banks will naturally not belong to them. Therefore, they can only borrow money from the Ministry of Accounts, and the Ministry of Accounts must be able to pay back the money. , we have to continuously increase the revenue of the treasury and collect all the benefits from the world in the name of the imperial court for the benefit of the Ministry of Household Affairs! ”
Jiao Fang said.
Zhu Houzhao nodded, as Jiao Fang said, this was his fundamental purpose of establishing the Royal Bank, which was to cultivate a group of capital groups tied to national interests.
This capital group prompted Ming Dynasty to achieve the purpose of transforming the small-scale peasant economy into a commodity economy by increasing national income.
Historically, in the process of the transformation of Ming society from a small peasant economy to a commodity economy, Shanxi merchants and Hui merchants played an important role.
The background of the former is the northern gentry, and the latter's background is the gentry of the south of the Yangtze River. Politically, the political struggle between the two manifested itself as a struggle between the north and the south, and finally evolved into a struggle between the eunuch party and the Donglin party.
There is no doubt that whether it is the Shanxi merchant consortium or the Hui merchant consortium, their interests are inconsistent with the interests of the court.
Their struggles in the court were all for the benefit of their own financial groups. Whether they were smuggling grain and iron to the Manchus or raising pirates, they were making the court poor and themselves rich. In the end, the court could not even do anything with them. In this way, even the imperial court became their puppet court!
The capital consortium that Zhu Houzhao wants to establish now is a consortium that relies on imperial power. As long as they want to increase their own interests, they will benefit the emperor, because the emperor is their common interest partner.
If the emperor wants to maintain this kind of interests and other officials and gentry of the consortium want to maintain this kind of interests and privileges, they can only make the Ming Dynasty more and more powerful. Otherwise, once the Ming Dynasty dies, their privileges will be taken away by others.
"Since Ai Qing is the chief minister of the cabinet, naturally he will not only think about rectifying the government and maintaining the government's principles. Whether the Ming Dynasty can be strong and prosperous, and whether the people can benefit from the court, all depends on whether Ai Qing, who upholds national politics, can contribute more to the court. Proceeds to benefit all people! ”
Zhu Houzhao said.
After hearing this, Jiao Fang naturally understood what Zhu Houzhao meant. She also knew that as the chief minister of the cabinet, she had to find ways to increase revenue for the national treasury, whether for the interests of the court or her own family. How could she increase the revenue for the national treasury? income without causing major turmoil.
Jiao Fang thought of the wealthy gentry she had seen before, and a sneer could not help but emerge from the corner of her mouth.
When Ulus Borot was executed, the Royal Bank had once again borrowed three million taels of silver from the Ministry of Accounts to supplement border services!
After all, the little prince is very likely to be angered by the Ming Dynasty and attack with his troops, so all the towns must be fully prepared.
Since Ye Qi, the Minister of Household Affairs in the Hongzhi Dynasty, changed the Sino-French system of receiving grain and salt into the system of receiving salt and receiving silver in order to take care of the interests of Huaiyang salt merchants, merchants all over the world did not need to transport grain if they wanted to withdraw salt. In Bian Town, you only need to pay silver to the Ministry of Household Affairs, thus saving the cost of transporting grain to Bian Town. The cost of salt merchants is greatly reduced, and business profits naturally increase a lot.
But the consequence is that merchants no longer collect grain in the border towns, which leads to a decrease in the population of the border towns and a slack supply of border supplies. As a result, grains are also greatly reduced, causing the price of grain in the border towns to skyrocket.
And because the silver was paid to the Ministry of Household Affairs, the Ministry of Household Affairs then issued salaries to the frontier troops in border towns, and the frontier troops used the silver to buy grain themselves. However, because the price of grain soared and the price of silver fell due to the large introduction of silver, the military expenditure of the imperial court increased sharply. After arriving in Wanli, it soared to tens of millions of taels, and most of the national income was used for military pay in border towns!
In the end, Ye Qi's reform of China and France led to the collapse of Ming Dynasty due to high military expenditures.
It can be said that Ye Qi, the Minister of Household Affairs in the Hongzhi Dynasty, was the treacherous official of the Ming Empire!
And he himself is from Huai'an.
Undoubtedly, because the Daming Salt Fields were mainly located in the Huaiyang area, the Huaiyang salt merchants behind him no longer had to transport grain to border towns and enjoyed the huge benefits brought by this opening up of China and France.
Even Shanxi merchants from the north began to move to the Huaiyang area, causing the population of the border towns to decrease even more. A smaller population meant that the border defenses became weaker, which directly led to the rise of the Jurchens in the later period. They could easily encroach on the land outside the Ming Dynasty, and they could enter and exit the border towns at will.
Moreover, a large number of merchants from border towns moved inward, especially after they gathered in the Huaiyang area, which led to a sharp increase in the number of gentry in the Huaiyang area. These gentry naturally had to annex a large amount of land, which also led to frequent famines in the Huaiyang area and a large increase in refugees.
At the same time, it can be said that although Ye Qi's policy of reforming and opening up China and France led to the rise of salt merchants.
But it harmed the entire empire.
However, the irony is that Ye Qi was praised as an upright official in history. It is unknown whether he was honest or incorruptible, but his policy did benefit businessmen and harmed the court.
Although Ye Qi also brought an extra million taels of income to the central court of the Ming Dynasty, this was at the expense of transferring the burden of raising troops and farming from merchants to the central court. Ten million taels of military expenditure and more than one million taels of salt tax revenue are undoubtedly meaningless.
Ye Qi, the Minister of Household Affairs in the Hongzhi Dynasty, has long since passed away. At this time, it is naturally unknown whether his original intention of switching to Sino-French to collect silver and salt was for the country or for the Huaiyang business group behind him. But what has to be admitted is that this was an important reason for the loss of the Hetao during the Hongzhi period, because the loss of the Hetao was not caused by the Mongols. It was due to the inward migration of a large number of merchants, soldiers and civilians due to the reform of Kaizhongfa, which allowed the Mongols to take advantage of the situation.
The bad results brought about by this policy are still affecting the Zhengde Dynasty, and as time goes on, this impact will become more and more serious until the empire is completely destroyed by aliens.
Because of this, Zhu Houzhao asked Ma Wensheng to go to the border towns to immigrate to the border towns and farm the fields before preparing to regain the Hetao, in order to curb the soaring food prices in the border towns.
However, real-border immigration will definitely not have obvious effects in the short term, and immigration to border towns also requires costs. Because of this, in the early stage, the Ministry of Household Affairs still allocated money to border towns to carry out real-border immigration.
The imperial court did not save money but instead increased spending.
In addition, the renovation of the border walls and the training of rural soldiers were replenished to make up for the shortage of frontier reserves after the reform of the Central Government, which caused a large number of people to move inward. As a result, the court's expenditures continued to increase again.
Nowadays, in order to prevent the little prince from harassing the border towns and even threatening the capital because his beloved son was executed by the Ming Dynasty, the court naturally has to strengthen the border troops. The obsolete and aging weapons of the border troops naturally have to be replaced immediately, and the Lumi owed to them must be immediately replaced. Reissues, or even multiple rounds, to boost morale, and at the same time increasing the frequency of military training and military reconnaissance operations in various border towns will naturally require spending money and food.
Therefore, the Account Department could only borrow another three million taels of silver from the Royal Bank on the basis of a large amount of loans from the Royal Bank!
The Zhengde Emperor Zhu Houzhao, the cabinet bachelors Jiao Fang, Xu Jin, Wang Hua, the chief ministers Liu Jin, Bingbigu Dayong and Ma Yongcheng, as well as the Guards General Staff Ma Wensheng and the Left Governor Qiu Yue could only watch helplessly at this moment. Xu Jing handed the receipt for the withdrawal of three million taels of silver to Wang Qiong, the new Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
Jiao Fang and other officials in the imperial military, government and even the inner court were bleeding because they clearly remembered that the Ministry of Revenue had borrowed nearly ten million taels of silver from the Royal Bank!
And they are all shareholders of the Royal Bank now. They know that if the Ministry of Accounts cannot repay the loan in the future, both they and the emperor will suffer huge losses, but if the Ministry of Accounts can afford to repay the money, they will Get big profits.
But they had to let the Ministry of Revenue borrow it, because if the Ministry of Revenue did not borrow it to supplement the border supplies, the Ming Dynasty would be at risk. Once the Ming Dynasty fell, their privileges would be gone.
"Your Majesty! The most important thing for the Ming Dynasty now is not to guard against the little prince, but to make up for the shortcomings of the court. Now most of the profits of the world belong to the merchants, and the taxes on the merchants are light. If the profits of the merchants are not taken to make up for the shortcomings of the court, then It will definitely hurt the farmers in the future and force the world to rise up!”
After Jiao Fang watched Wang Qiong, the Secretary of the Ministry of Revenue, follow Xu Jing to the Royal Bank to withdraw silver, she felt extremely painful and had to tell Zhu Houzhao her purpose of taking advantage of the businessman.
"Your Majesty, I think what Chief Kui said is true. If you want to open up a prosperous age, you should be based on agriculture. Cherishing the interests of the people also cherishes the interests of farmers. Now that merchants are benefiting and farmers are suffering, it will naturally lead to starvation and death all over the country! I am in charge of the Ministry of War. Dispatch the world's military rations , but found that since the Kaizhong law was changed to collecting silver for salt, the cost of military rations increased sharply. I thought that the system of collecting grain and salt should be restored, and using merchants to farm and transport grain would reduce the burden on the court and benefit the people! ”
Xu Jin, the second assistant, also echoed.
He knew that if he directly levied commercial taxes now, he would definitely offend all the gentry, but if he just restored the system of paying grain and collecting salt, it would only take away the benefits given to Huaiyang salt merchants by Ye Qi, the Minister of Household Affairs of the Hongzhi Dynasty, and it would naturally be easier. .
"I have felt that the system of paying grain and collecting salt should be restored! Although this is a strategy to increase the burden on merchants, it was precisely because of this that Taizu only set the commercial tax at 1 in 30! If merchants do not bear the responsibility of raising the army , what’s the point of light taxation? ”
Wang Hua also agreed.
"But your Majesty, I have already divided the land among the people in the border town before. Now the entire unowned land and newly cultivated land in the border town have been awarded to the soldiers and civilians of the border town in accordance with your majesty's decree, and the division of Yongye field and Kou field in the Tang Dynasty has been implemented. , and 80% of the land is divided by mouth, and the people can only cultivate it but cannot sell it. It will be returned to the court after fifty years!”
"If the system of collecting grain and salt is restored, merchants will continue to return to border towns to farm, but there is almost no farmland left in border towns, so it seems meaningless for merchants to hire people to come to border towns," Ma Wensheng said.
What Zhu Hou said to Baima Wensheng is that the Ming Dynasty has now implemented a policy of immigrating to the border towns to farm fields. Even if merchants want to come to the border towns to farm fields in the future, it will be meaningless because a large amount of land belongs to the government and they can no longer Buy it yourself.
However, Zhu Houzhao still decided to implement the system of collecting grain and salt, prompting merchants to go to the border towns to farm, and said:
"There is no land to farm in the border towns inside the pass. Can't we go outside the wall? Isn't it the king's land in the world? Do the merchants of the Ming Dynasty only dare to farm within the wall? What you said is very appropriate. We can resume collecting grain and collecting food." The system of salt encourages merchants to go out to farm and tell them that the territory of the Ming Dynasty will not be closed within the wall! I support them to station their farms next to the little prince’s tent!”
As a result, the cabinet and the Supervisor of Ceremonies began to prepare to restore the system of collecting grain and salt.
But the salt merchants will naturally not sit still and wait for death. The court is now paying more and more attention to border defense, and may even have a fight with the little prince. They are also worried that the court will resume the system of paying grain and collecting salt.
Therefore, Ye Zhi, the son of Ye Qi, who was the Prime Minister of Taichang Temple at the time, wrote a memorial requesting his mother to be granted the imperial edict to test the direction of the court. As long as the court would not resume the system of collecting grain and salt, it would naturally grant Ye Zhi this grace. To appease the hearts of the salt merchants behind him.
But Jiao Fang, the chief minister of the cabinet, voted without hesitation: "I have always heard that his mother abused her concubine, and her name is unworthy. And her husband gave the prince a posthumous title of Taibao. If he adds another imperial edict, wouldn't it override her husband!" No! ”
Liu Jin, the Supervisor of Rites, naturally approved the decision without hesitation.
In today's Zhengde Dynasty, the Chief of Ceremonies and the Cabinet are always in step with each other, and they can be said to be politically connected and harmonious. However, the businessmen and the gentry group behind them are not happy about this.
Because the cabinet refused to add a royal title to Ye Qi's wife, the salt merchants realized that the imperial court really wanted to restore the system of collecting grain and salt. For a while, they became a little panicked and started looking for countermeasures.
……
The Ming Empire was vast and had a large population, so there were naturally many affairs. Zhu Houzhao had no time to think about how the salt merchants would respond at this time. He believed that Jiao Fang and others could handle the matter. After all, these people were all involved in political struggles in history. The winning figure is supposed to be far more intelligent in official circles than himself, and will not be defeated by the officials and gentry.
Now, Zhu Houzhao has to pay more attention to the little prince.
Thank you to book friend Green Sheep for the 100 starting coin reward
(End of chapter)